IDENTITY AND AGENCY: A POST-HUMANIST ANALYSIS OF TCHAIKOVSKY’S SERVICE MODELS

Abstract

This research examined Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model from a post-humanist perspective that includes cyborgs as the focal point and how they relate to both their post-human identities as well as their agency regarding human/machine relations. The study employs Donna Haraway Cyborg theory in order to assess the post-human identities of service machines. It also examines the agency exercised by the machines against human supremacy and ethical responsibility. The research in this paper uses qualitative research methodology that is based on Haraway's cyborg theory and post-humanist framework through the use of close textual analysis. The post-human analysis of the text looks at how artificial entities are represented within the narrative as active participants within man-made technological systems instead of simply being participants of the systems created by man. The analysis continues to address how the representations of artificial entities complicate the long-held traditional distinctions between humans and machines, subjects and objects, and control and autonomy in technologically mediated environments. Existing literature on post-humanism and science fiction has emphasized the shifting boundaries between human and machine, particularly through Haraway’s conceptualization of the cyborg. This research demonstrates how robotic artificial service beings reconceptualize agency and challenge current human-centered hierarchies and expose the limitations of ethical frameworks found in these hierarchies. More importantly, this study illustrates how artificial service agents are destabilizing historical understandings of identity by functioning outside the confines of established systems. The findings of this study add to the fields of science fiction scholarship and post-humanism in clarifying our understanding of how agency and identity are evolving through technologically mediated narratives.